


best kept secret (biggest mistake)

by theriveroflight



Series: From Under the Eiffel Tower: Spin the Record [5]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: ...well marinette/chat blanc but that isn't a tag, Akumatized Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Based on a Fall Out Boy Song, Crimes & Criminals, Drowning, F/M, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Minor Character Death, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28457793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: So wear me like a locket around your throatI'll weigh you down, I'll watch you chokeYou look so good in blue, so good in blue...
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Alix Kubdel
Series: From Under the Eiffel Tower: Spin the Record [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015888
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	best kept secret (biggest mistake)

**Author's Note:**

> Title and summary from "Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner" by Fall Out Boy. You can listen to the original [here](https://youtu.be/jaE4Mpjmkh4), the acoustic I was listening to while writing this [here](https://youtu.be/Dkxl1Iws6j4), and if you want to laugh/cry "Criminal" by Britney Spears isn't a halfway bad soundtrack.
> 
> Warnings: angst, physical fighting, brief passage with drowning, police, minor character death, a bit of Gabriel salt
> 
> Thanks to Khanofallorcs and Ginwhi for beta reading!

When Marinette looks into his eyes, all she sees is cold, ice blue.

“I know what you are, princess,” he tells her.

“Well, I’ve known what you are for ages,” she says, kissing him.

“Your affection is a lie.” But he still leans into it, basking in her warmth as much as he can. “Yet I still want this illusion, because it is all I have ever known of love.”

“Kitty…” Marinette breathes.

But she knows that their relationship isn’t real, either.

* * *

_ Marinette is part of a mostly underground group known as the Holders. Chat Blanc is the most notorious of the Akumas, able to go in and out without leaving a trace beyond ashes and a glimpse of white outfit. _

_ So Marinette, the best and brightest of them all, goes after Chat Blanc. She pretends to be helpless, she pretends to be a girl in need of a companion. And it works. Her faux loneliness is assuaged by Chat Blanc, and she goes back to the Holders with more information on Chat Blanc and his abilities, the fire at his fingertips. _

_ When Blanc tells her that he is in love, she kisses him first. _

_ And so the illusion begins, enemies spinning around each other. She doesn’t want it to end. But Chat Blanc needs to be pulled away from the Akumas, and so she will continue to fight against him, as long as it takes. _

_ They share in the spoils of his thievery. She pretends that she isn’t aware of his criminal background, and as far as she is aware he doesn’t know about her being a Holder, being part of the people that seek to take him and the Akumas down. _

* * *

“I know what you are now.”

Very few people know what happened to Ladybug. She stopped being Ladybug after Tikki died — it would have been disrespectful to keep sharing the mantle. She stopped being Ladybug when Chat Noir disappeared, too.

Chat Noir disappeared, and Tikki was destroyed — all in the process of defeating their greatest enemy. Gabriel was arrested — but Chat Blanc took over the Akumas in his stead.

And the connection...well, the connection that she hadn’t wanted to make then.

Chat Noir had switched sides, black to white.

“You don’t know me,” she says. “You never did.” She backs away from him, before he can hurt her with those claws that he’s only ever used to caress her cheeks, her body, her…

“But I know you better than  _ anyone,”  _ he answers. “Because I’ve known every part of you. Or were you just a liar the whole time?”

“You know I hate liars.” It’s a weak defense, she knows, because she’s always torn herself apart over keeping secrets. Being undercover against Chat Blanc was the worst of the lies.

“Blanc. This  _ ends tonight.” _ She channels Tikki, channels the Ladybug she used to be, and stands tall.

She doesn’t exactly have the authority, but the police respect the Holders and if the Holders are helping them take out the Akumas, well…

“Oh, what happened to  _ Chat?  _ To  _ kitty?  _ To  _ my prince?”  _ He laughs, a darker grit behind it. “Stop trying to put a wall between the present and the past! I am the same person as Chat Noir! We are both the same under the mask!”

She doesn’t answer that, instead choosing to attack, stepping up to land a roundhouse kick to his ribs. He catches her leg, but she breaks free of his hold to knock him onto the ground.

“You’re wrong. You’ve been  _ corrupted  _ by him, even though he’s  _ long gone.” _

“Haven’t you figured out what he does to us?”

Lord knows that she’s been tempted to follow the dark butterfly droid to the den of the Akumas. Lord knows that she’s almost done it. But she’s always been talked down before she followed.

“I was almost a victim to the same corruption.”

He dodges a punch.

“Oh, you think you’re little miss high and mighty, just because you didn’t get  _ tricked.”  _

She swings beneath the reach of his staff.

“Many of our Holders  _ defected  _ from the Akumas, if you don't remember _.  _ I do not judge anyone who was. It sounds as though it is a terrifying experience, and it isn’t one I want to go through.”

They continue to fight, though it’s clear that neither of their hearts are really in it. There are a few onlookers, Marinette notices, recording the fight between them.

“I loved you. And then I found out that you were Ladybug, and your love…your love was just a cruel trick. Just as much as my father’s.”

She remembers what little Chat Noir said about his father. And she  _ doesn’t like  _ being compared to him.

“I did what I had to.”

“He said the same to me as well.”

He pauses, smirking for dramatic effect. “Right before he akumatized me and made me leader in his stead before the raid.”

“I never thought…” Chat Noir is — was — her partner. This  _ impostor  _ can’t be.

“Oh, believe it, milady. It’s real.” He bares fanged teeth at her and goes on the attack again. She defends herself. She doesn’t have a weapon, doesn’t have any of the abilities the Akumas do — not without Ladybug, not without Tikki at her side. 

She tackles him into the river, but it’s an unwise decision — she’s in clothes that can soak, they drag her down. He rolls on top of her, but she manages to drag him to shallower water.

He holds her underwater, and she kicks and resists against drowning, blubbering in the water. She manages to throw him off.

“I’m not the person you know anymore.” He rings his bell, a small tinkle. “I’m Chat Blanc now, and you have to accept that, Marinette.”

“I’m not the person you know either,” she says, “I was Ladybug, and now I’m just Marinette.”

He laughs, the sound disturbing. She knows that some people wouldn’t think of it as an entertaining fight because they stop to talk too much — but they have history, they have things between them, things Marinette has wanted to say since she took the undercover mission to feel useful again.

“You could never be  _ just  _ anything, princess. After all, you made me fall for you twice, and both times you were just playing me to stomp on my heart and destroy it.”

The night is cold, and she’s wet, so that adds to the shiver she has, but she maintains her stance, waiting to see if he’ll attack or if she has to take the offensive.

“I didn’t love you. Not at first,” she confesses. “I fell for  _ you, now,  _ and I regret every second of it.”

“It’s too late, Marinette.” It’s the first time he used her name during the night. “You’re the one who destroyed it all.”

“I think you had your own hand to play in it.”

“What could I do? What could I do, when I was forced to choose? I couldn’t, and it overwhelmed me, and now I’m here.” He closes his eyes, and a single tear starts to fall. She steps closer to him, feeling her flats squelch in the river bottom. She uses her thumb to wipe the tear...and takes his bell. It isn’t...the same as Chat Noir’s, not quite, and when she snaps it off the white flows off of him.

She tosses the bell into the river, where it fritzes out in a storm of electricity.

“It’s okay, Chat.” She rests her forehead against his. “It’s going to be okay.”

Sirens start to wail. “Will I be prosecuted for my actions?”

“I don’t know. But I can vouch for you. Most of the victims have managed to get out — like I said, some became Holders, others went on with their own lives. We...recognize that he’s terribly manipulative. What happened to Plagg?”

The sound of the sirens stopping prevents him from speaking.

“Paris Police. Chat Blanc, you’re under arrest.” When the officer sees the two of them, though…

“I...you’re willing to vouch for this villain?”

“He’s been manipulated just as much as the others. If not more. He’s…I don’t want to say, but there’s a reason Gabriel chose  _ him  _ as his target and deputy.”

“But he left you and the other Holders. He’s not like the others.”

He goes to take off his ring. “Come on…”

“You don’t need to, Chat,” she says, covering his hand with hers. “He’s the son. And neither of them knew until he turned.”

“We’re still going to escort you both to the police station so you can tell the full story,” the officer says, “and your cat over here will have to at least owe reparations for everything he stole.”

“Okay.” The cold is starting to set in — without any adrenaline left from the fight, there’s nothing stopping her from feeling the wetness of her hair and clothes. She starts to shiver.

***

They get away with it. The legal system uses the funds they seized from Gabriel to pay back the storekeepers. Today, she’s taking Chat Noir to where the Holders meet.

“It’s Ladybug,” she says when she knocks on the door. “I brought a guest.”

There are no enemies left to target them. No need to conceal anyways, when they both laid everything bare on that bridge and in the river.

“Come in.” Alix. She wonders where Master Fu went — Marinette hasn’t seen him in a few days.

“I saw the videos of your mission,” she says. “Are you here to return Plagg?”

“We are.” Marinette keeps her voice flat, speaking where she knows Adrien won’t want to.

He takes off the ring. The suit folds off of him into the shape of a tiny black cat. “Plagg, I renounce you.” The ring takes a black form, and Alix takes it from him and stuffs it in her pocket.

“I’ll put it in the box after you leave. I just wanted to talk about that undercover mission. Marinette…”

“I know. I know I failed in most of it, but I still got rid of the akuma. So it doesn’t  _ matter  _ what was required to get there,” she defends.

“I wasn’t going to say anything, but he might.” Marinette narrows her eyes. She knows Fu hasn’t trusted her, not since Tikki was destroyed. “So you might have to defend yourself to him. He’s been working on repairing Tikki — he hasn’t come out in days, not to see anyone. I’ve been handling everything lately.” Because Marinette being here would jeopardize her mission. “I think he knew that it would come to a fight, but you still managed to win.”

“She saved me,” Adrien says, “from the last influence my father had over me. I hope he doesn’t punish her, because she doesn’t deserve it.”

“I agree, but you know him.” Alix shakes her head. “Well, if he needs you, Marinette — I’ll let you know.”

“Okay,” she answers. “I’ll see you later. Adrien and I are going to have a nice lunch now, and hopefully not get bothered by anyone.”

“Enjoy.” Alix rolls her eyes, but Marinette knows she’s happy for them.

Their happiness is muted — but they have years and years ahead of them now.

**Author's Note:**

> Be sure to subscribe to the SERIES, not this work. That way you can be informed of all the future works, and not just end up subscribed to something that won't update. 
> 
> And join me on the [Miraculous Fanworks Discord server](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) if you're interested in meeting a growing community of creators and Miraculous Ladybug fans - where we both hold informal challenges like this and more formal challenges like exchanges.
> 
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